Key Republicans involved in Texas redistricting struggled with how to draw boundaries for three San Antonio congressional districts without raising the ire of federal courts, according to emails recently unsealed by a federal judge.

The messages were among more than 400 pages of emails requested by plaintiffs in federal redistricting lawsuits. They were sent between key redistricting staffers in the Texas House and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, the Republican congressional delegation point person on redistricting.

In late May, Smith wrote his lawyer, who was heavily involved with Texas Republicans working on redistricting, offering to swap part of his conservative district with Rep. Francisco “Quico” Canseco, R-San Antonio, to help make Canseco's district more Republican.

Canseco won his district, which is considered a Hispanic majority district and protected by the Voting Rights Act, during the Republican landslide in 2010 in part because of low Hispanic turnout.

Canceso's district “is barely performing (or not depending on your measure) right now; add [Republicans] (which will be Anglos) and you put a neon sign on it telling the court to redraw it,” he wrote. “Bring down your numbers and you'll have a Dem opponent every time. And they won't be Lainey Melnick.”

The swap was never made, but the lines of Canseco's district were altered, making the district significantly more conservative.

Democratic strategist and redistricting expert Ed Martin said that was accomplished by swapping out Hispanic precincts with high voter turnout for Hispanic precincts with lower turnout.

“Legally, they made it much less effective for Latino voters,” Martin said. “They've rendered the district ineffective; they did achieve what they said out to do and made it a district that will be controlled by Anglo voters.”

The emails also show Smith taking a keen interest in finding as many Hispanic votes as possible for the new heavily Hispanic congressional district that will run from San Antonio to Austin.

The new Hispanic district would be the only Democratic district that would stretch to Austin, the hometown of longtime Republican nemesis U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett. Forcing Doggett to run in a Hispanic district anchored in San Antonio would make it more difficult for him to win a Democratic primary.

Smith sent an email asking that the neighborhood around the San Antonio Country Club be moved from the new Hispanic district to his to reduce the number of Anglo voters by “a fraction.”

A key House staff member sent back an email that read “change has been made.”

Republicans also made significant changes to Democratic Rep. Charlie Gonzalez's San Antonio district to find Hispanic voters for the new Hispanic district.

Frustrated with a proposed version of Gonzalez's district, Smith's lawyer wrote his counterpart in House Speaker Joe Straus' office to complain.

“Sure it performs the same, and will it make a difference in the end with the court, probably not; it just gives an easy paragraph where they can say we retrogressed, and we have to explain why that doesn't matter,” he said in the email.

A key Republican aide involved in redistricting said those concerns were allayed with later amendments to the congressional redistricting map.

“A lot of our effort with the Legislature was convincing them not to take the risk than not take the risk,” the aide said. “When the Legislature passes the plan, it's the end of the beginning.”